I've been posting on the Acid Reflux board and Cancer board to try and get information. My husband is 42 and is loosing weight like crazy. He had a EGD today and the dr didn't think that anything he saw was the cause of his symptoms. He has nausea...he has kept his food down just stops eating after a few bites. WEIGHT LOSS. Were talking about 40lbs now in a mater of months. Fatigue. Constipation/loose stools. He has not ever mentioned blood in his stools, at least not to me.

His family dr just didn't seem concerned until he saw the difference in weight. I even explained it was MORE than that because he puts on weight in the winter and it's gone along with the rest of the weight in a matter of a few months. At that time I asked for a colonoscopy and he said "its for people over 50" but did schedule him for a EGD becuse he does have occational heartburn. The dr that did the EGD today didn't find anything to cause his symptoms and sent him straight down for a abdominal/pelvic CT scan and scheduled him for a colonoscopy for next week. My husband doesn't even look healthy. I thought the scan would give us answers but I think I read on a post that they dont normally detect CC. They were to call with the results tomorrow. The family dr did blood work and said it came back OK. I asked about his psa and they did NOT do that test. Is there a blood test/tests I need to have them do?

I am soooo glad this EGD dr today saw the obvious and scheduled the test. He had all this scheduled before either of us spoke with him. It is obvious by looking at my husband there is a something not right. I'm sorry to babble. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Vicky

I am so glad you keep pressing your doctors. Colonoscopies are NOT just for the over 50 crowd! :blob_fire There are MANY folks on this board going through colorectal cancer treatment who are under 50. I myself am 33!!!

GET the colonoscopy...get CT scans, switch doctors if you can. Good luck and keep us posted!

Take care,
Cats

I too am glad that they have scheduled a colonoscopy. I also agree with Cats, change drs if you can. My husband tried for almost a year to get his doctor to find out what was wrong with him and all he would do was change his blood pressure medicine. A person doesn't always pass blood that can be seen. My husband never noticed any at all. The colonoscopy showed the colon cancer, which was a shock, but at least he can now fight this and he is doing really well.

Good luck and please let us know how things go.

Thank you for your replies. They called yesterday to say the CT scan was fine and didn't show anything. He will be having the colonoscopy on Wed and I will update then.

Vicky

hiswife1 or anyone,

If you dont mind my asking, what were your husbands symptom's? Were they similar to my husband's? Nausea-though all food eaten has stayed down so far. Constipation/loose stool. Fatigue. Weight loss. He has been consuming plenty of calories to maintain his current weight but he keeps LOOSING. This is making me crazy. As of last night he's lost an additional 2 lbs in 2 days. Are his calories not being absorb?

Any idea's on what to give him to stop or slow down this weight loss? He's been eating ice cream/banana splits/shakes every night but its not working. He's been drinking a 1000 calories or more just from pepsi even though I know its not the best its something and doesnt cause the nausea, food does. When you add in the calories from the food he does eat he should not be loosing, NOT LIKE THIS.

Vicky

Hi Vicky, I hope you find out answers after your husbands colonoscopy.
My husband was diagnosed stage III rectal cancer following a routine colonoscopy. He had no symptoms at all but did have a reocurrance of a duadenual ulcer a month before we had our scopes done. I believe this was God's way of giving us a wakeup call and get us to schedule the colonoscopies. If not for the ulcer, we still may have not had the colonoscopies done and would not have found the cancer untill it had progressed much more. We were 52 when had the scopes done.
Good luck and God Bless, Kathy:wave:

Hi Vicky,

Good luck with the colonoscopy. Hopefully, they can give you some answers quickly. My husband was diagnoised with stage iv colon cancer with mets to the liver in July, 04. He had a colon resection then 4 months later a liver resection. Then in March of this year he had another liver resection (the whole left lobe of his liver) and ablation on a tumor on the right lobe. He has had chemo and now has a hepatic artery infusion pump that puts chemo directly into his liver. He is doing really well right now and runs his dozer every day.

My husband did not show any signs of bleeding. But when we finally found a doctor who wouldn't just say it was the blood pressure pills they found that he was extremely anemic. He got very weak, had occasional nausea, felt full even when he hadn't eaten but a few bites and lost quite a bit of weight. He also had a grayish color. This took place from Oct. 03 to June 04 when he was finally diagnoised. He would have bad "shortness of breath" when ever he did any thing that required lifting, walking fast, etc. He also ran fever and had chills occasionally.

I don't want to scare you. Your husband may not have colon cancer, but if he does please don't give up hope. It will be overwhelming at first, but come back and we will do our best to help you through it. There are some really smart people on this board that are more than willing to help. It helps so much to talk to someone who is going through the same thing you are.

Take care of yourself also and let us know how things are going.

My uncle actually had his first colonoscopy when he was in his early forties, and even then I felt it was a bit young to be worried about such things. But it seems its true that younger people are getting diagnosed these days, and esp. with this family - i am quite concerned about how early I should get screened for colon cancer. I managed to look up some useful information on colon cancer screening at www.healthsiteguide.com - they have a special section on the topic at their homepage. It was pretty helpful, as far as a medical lay-person like me is concerned, so I hope it'll be of some benefit to you all. My best wishes to all of you

David

Believe me, noone could scare me any more than I already have scared myself. At this point I think we just want a answer to all this and will deal with what ever it is. My mom had the same weight/nausea issues and was diagnossed with cancer.

hiswife1, our husband's syptoms seem identical other than the gray color. He works outside so that wouldn't be noticeable with the tan though. He just looks unhealthy.

My husband turned 42 yesterday and couldn't even enjoy his meal/cake because of all this nausea stuff. Today liquid diet. Tomorrow the colonoscopy and hopefully a answer to all this. They said the test would take 45min to a hr. If its longer should I start worrying? If they find something will it take longer? Will we have answers before we leave or have to do the biopsy wait? I'm afraid I'll have a break down just sitting and waiting.

Vicky

Hi Vicky,

We knew that my husband had cancer within the hour after his colonoscopy. The doctor did do a biopsy, but he could definately tell just by looking at the tumors. I know your doctor will at least be able to tell you if they see something that doesn't look right.

One good thing, you would definately be able to tell if your husband had a grayish color. My hubby is a dozer operator and works outside all the time too and it will show up through a tan.

I wouldn't worry if it takes longer than they said it would. They might not be able to get to him right away or something else that might make it longer. It is possible that they might find polyps that they can remove during the colonoscopy and that might take longer. So please don't read anything into the length of the wait. I know how you feel though. My husband's last liver surgery I kept thinking that the longer he was in surgery, the better the chances that they didn't find anything else. I mentioned it to his surgeon and he told me never to read anything into the time it takes on any procedure. I have always been bad about doing this tho.

Please let us know what the ct shows tomorrow. I will keep you both in my prayers.:) dee

I wanted to take the time to let you know the colonoscopy did NOT show colon cancer. It did show diverticulosis but not the cause of the nausea. He ordered a chest CT scan to see if he has a tumor in his lungs. Now we wait on results. If that doesn't show anything he doesn't know what else to do.

Thank you soooo much for your support durring all of this crazyness.
Vicky

Vicky that is wonderful news that it didn't show colon cancer. I will say an extra prayer that he doesn't have a tumor in his lungs. Please keep us posted on how things are going.:) dee

I didn''t know if I should start a new thread or not so I'm just using my old one.

They didn't find a tumor in his lung or anything for that matter! I took him to a internal med dr hoping that he would find the cause. He scheduled a swallow test and my husband was to take in stool samples. HE HAS DONE NONE OF THESE. He had missed alot of work and was tired of being told nothing was wrong. STILL has all the same symptoms. PLUS BLOOD NOW!!!


He's down to 134lbs DRESSED in his oversized clothes. Telling me about the blood was a "slip" on his part. I started yelling and he finally told me he has been bleeding for weeks. It started a few weeks after the colonoscopy so its not the cause or could it be? He told me he is slowly dying but didn't want to miss anymore work for money reasons and the DR"S WONT LISTEN ANYWAY. He's frustrated and tired of being told they cant find the cause. I called the gastro dr who did all the other test and they said call the family dr that they didn't find anything and they can refer to a different gastro dr or I could take him to the ER. HELP!!!!!!!!!

Hi Vicky,

I am so sorry that this is still going on with your husband. It is bad enough to be scared because of all of the symptoms, but to have to deal with doctors that do show any more interest than the gastro. doctor is terrible.

Like I mentioned before it took almost a year of different doctors telling us it was the bp thing. You feel so helpless knowing something is wrong and yet no one can find anything. I wish I knew what to say. Will he go to the er? The only other thing I can think of would be to try to contact another gastro dr. I am sorry, I wish I could be more help.

Believe me, I know how frustrated they can get. Try to get him to calmly discuss this with you and remind him that he is more important that the paycheck he brings in. Tell him if he gets sicker that will keep him from working even more.

I know CD or someone will probably be able to answer your questions better than I can. Just know that I will keep you both in my prayers. Please let me know how things are going.

I took my husband to the dr today.....the one I don't like. He seemed to think even with all the symptoms the blood he's been having for about a month now and that I JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT is no big deal. Just a tear most likely because its bright red so its lower in the digestive track and the colonoscopy would of seen a problem if there was one. The higher up the track the darker the blood would be. I finally had enough of the BS and the head scratching. I told him they everything from his mouth to his butt was checked except his small intestine's and wanted a test for that. The gastro dr believe's it a cancer of some sort but didn't find it. He went on to say that he had a 42yr old patient that he coudn't find the cause to her symptoms. She died a few months later and it was then that they found lung cancer everywhere but never showed on any test. I think he believes it to be a cancer also but wanted to keep playing this head scratching game.

I DEMANDED a PET scan. He started to give me insurance/cost excusses and I stopped him. I made it clear we have excellent insurance that has NEVER denied anything and to schedule it. I already had the info with me down to the opening Monday at 11am along with the woman's name that they needed to talk to. Maybe he should of ordered it for the woman with Lung cancer rather than keep repeating that you have to find the disease and it doesn't always show up on test! My poor husband. It's not the first time I embarrassed him and wont be the last I'm sure. Needless to say, he IS having a PET scan Monday morn at 11am. He did leave a dr's office for the first time in months with a smile.:D

That being said, did I do the right thing?

Yes, yes, yes! You definately did the right thing. I am so proud of you! Sometimes doctors make me so mad. I agree, maybe he should have ordered one for the woman with lung cancer.

It sounds like to me that your husband may have been more proud than embarrassed if he left the doctors office with a smile. Believe me, I have embarrassed my husband more than once, but he was always glad that I did. For some reason when he is sick he wants me to take charge and I am usually very quite and people can walk all over me and I will just take it. But not when it comes to him. I want him with me for a very long time.

I will say a big prayer that everything went well today. Please let us know what you find out.:)

P.S. And may I say again, GOOD FOR YOU.

Thank You hiswife1. He had the pet scan this morn. Hopefully well know something by tomorrow. It should be Wed's at the latest. Holding our breath till then. I'll let you know.

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your husband. At least now maybe you will get some answers.

Just wanted to let everyone know the pet scan results are in. They said did not show anything in his chest, abdominal area or torso. I was thrilled. She then went on to say that it showed something in his brain....calcifications, I believe was part of what I heard. Not sure what that means but when I do a search, it takes me to sights for brain cancer. The dr is scheduling him for a MRI of his brain now.

Just wanted to let everyone know the pet scan results are in. They said did not show anything in his chest, abdominal area or torso. I was thrilled. She then went on to say that it showed something in his brain....calcifications, I believe was part of what I heard. Not sure what that means but when I do a search, it takes me to sights for brain cancer. The dr is scheduling him for a MRI of his brain now.


I have been lurking at your thread for awhile. I just wanted to let you know that Im so glad that your Pet came out ok. Sorry to hear about the brain scan. I think (and could be totally wrong) but it can also mean MS or Lyme disease. Has he been tested for Lyme? Again Im sorry for your husbands health and hope you will get the anwsers needed to help him

Thanks purplepiegirl. I've since gotten a copy of the report because the nurse was being a little evasive. She made it sound like it was calcification in his brain in general. Just random spots thru out. That is NOT the case. Its in the pineal gland and report goes on to say calcification in a pineal-based tumor could give this apperance. He's having a MRI tomorrow. They scheduled it for when the dr would be there and could WATCH as it was done. Not sure if thats a good sign but trying to stay positive. Hopefully we wont have to wait as long on the results this way.

That is great about the pet scan. I will keep you both in my prayers for a good outcome with the MRI. Please let us know what you find out.

My husband had his mri's yesterday. We knew that they had found "something" concerning. The dr there sent him directly to get a CT scan. The ct report is not in but I was able to get the mri report. His tumor/mass is in his sinus. When I called the best hospital in town and read them the "impressions" on the report they made him a appt for this Tuesday. I asked the nurse if all this means they found a tumor/sinus cancer. She said yes. It normally takes months to get a appt but they are seeing him very quickly so that is good.

I want to think EVERYONE so much in this community for supporting me thru this struggle.

We know are bodies better than anyone. When you KNOW something is not right, DEMAND they keep looking and the test you want done. Had the PET scan not been done. We would not have the answer now.

I am so sorry that this has turned out to be cancer. But, at least you know what to fight now. To me the not knowing is so much worse. You will both be in my prayers.

I agree completely, if they won't follow through with all the test possible we have to get as pushy as needed. Your husband is very lucky to have you in his corner. Please let us know how he is doing and if you are going to post on another board let me know. I would really like to know how things are going.

Take good care of yourself also.:) dee

Just checking in to see how the Dr. appt went today. Im very sorry to hear of your husbands tumor.